8 seniors in Florida charged with aiding Medicare home health scam

April 08, 2014, Miami, FL 
The owner of two home health care companies in Miami was arrested as part of a Medicare fraud bust over $12.5 million in allegedly false charges.

Vicente Diaz, 39, controlled both Marcialed Health Care Corp. and Sacred Health Inc., which the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida said submitted false claims to Medicare from November 2011 to October 2013.

Diaz and Daniel Ocampo, 35, a former officer of Sacred Heart, were charged with health care fraud, wire fraud and paying kickbacks and bribes to recruit patients.

According to the complaint, Diaz and Ocampo gave people bribes and kickbacks so they’d serve as patients for the home health companies even though those services weren’t medically necessary. The companies didn’t actually perform home health services but they still billed Medicare for them, the complaint said.

The indictment demands that Diaz and Ocampo forfeit two properties and four Mercedes vehicles that they bought with proceeds from the scheme.